Biscuit Donuts

A few years ago I saw an idea for donuts in Real Simple magazine that sounded right up my alley. I like donuts but never bother making them at home because I don’t want to do all the work involved; letting them raise, and cutting them out, and raising (again?). This recipe suggested using canned biscuit dough instead of a regular yeast dough. That I can do. So I clipped it, threw it in with a bunch of other clippings and sort of forgot about it. Once in a while I’d pass it while sifting through the clippings but never got around to trying it.

Then, last weekend ODD and I went on a date to see the new Sherlock Holmes (which is awesome, by the way). Every other week we swap babysitting with a friend and when we went to pick up the kids they offered us a plate of donuts they’d just made. They were awesome! M, the wife of the family, told me she’d made them with biscuit dough. I think she said she’d seen it on pinterest. They were so good, they’d turned out even better than I thought they might when I first clipped the recipe all those years ago. I’m so, so glad she tried them and was willing to share.

A few days later I was craving them so much I pulled out a can of biscuit dough I had on hand and fried some up for dessert.

I don’t have a circle cookie cutter so I just used a little scalloped flower-looking one.

After burning the first couple because I got the oil was too hot (typical for me), the rest turned out nice and golden-brown. And, as we all know, brown food tastes yummy.

Then I dipped them in a simple icing.

We gobbled them up pretty quickly. I think next time I make them I’ll do a whipped maple frosting to top them with because even though I really like just plain iced donuts, maple bars are some of my most favorite pastries ever. And there will definitely be a next time. They were so fast, very inexpensive, and almost no work at all. If you like donuts but don’t like how long it takes, I highly recommend going this route.

It also has me wondering about using made-from-scratch biscuit dough. I usually make from-scratch biscuits when we have biscuits and gravy for dinner. They’re super easy, don’t take much time, but I wonder if they’d work the same way. If I ever decide to put in a little more work and give it a try I’ll let you know.